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Back to zero—but that’s a great number for BREMCO and their customers who lost power in Thursday’s huge snow event. Just before 10 Saturday night, linemen restored power to the final member of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation affected by Thursday night’s snow storm.
Renee Whitener of BREMCO said full power restoration was completed thanks to help from crews from Rutherford EMC, Union Power, French Broad EMC, York Electric, Haywood EMC, EnergyUnited, and Sumter, Pike and Carter utility contract crews. At the height of the storm, 9,000 members were left without power Thursday night, with linemen facing a unique challenge in the restoration due to days of heavy rain before Thursday night’s storm loosening the soil and tree roots. When heavy wet snow fell Thursday night, the extra weight on limbs caused trees to fall—many that were outside the cooperative’s rights-of-way and tall enough to crash down onto power lines. The heavy wet snow also weighted down power lines, bringing down spans of line and causing system damage, leading to more outages. But after some customers spent up to 24 hours in the cold and dark, the light and heat are great news.